Hudbay’s closure of popular off-road trails near Rosemont project angers recreational users

Hudbay Minerals’ decision to close access to forest roads in the Santa Rita Mountains is angering southern Arizona residents who have long used the area for recreational and hunting purposes.

The action to shut off access to popular off-road trails came just days before a human-caused wildfire broke out near one of the closed roads leading to the popular Gunsight Pass.

Hudbay owns the Rosemont Copper Co. which is seeking state and federal permits to build the Rosemont copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains on the Coronado National Forest southeast of Tucson.

Hudbay closed dirt roads on private land leading to Gunsight and Lopez passes on a prominent ridgeline on the Santa Ritas’ northern end — areas that have long drawn four-wheelers and hunters. The winding, rutted, rocky road leading to Gunsight from Sahuarita was particularly popular, the Arizona Daily Star reports.

“I find it extremely disheartening the mining company would close off this trail to the public, and it’s a significant loss to our community,” Matt Marine, who owns the Experience AZ website that offers information on four-wheeling, hiking and mountain biking across Arizona, said in an interview with the Daily Star.

Marine told the paper it is one of the most popular off-road trails he knows of in the Tucson area, based on the number of information requests he gets about it.

Gunsight and Lopez passes are on private land, but the roads that go through them lead to public land on the Coronado National Forest. Hudbay and the Forest Service say the company has a right to close the roads.

A Forest Service map shows Hudbay has closed roads in 13 locations in the area near the proposed mine site including nine locations on the west side of the Santa Ritas’ ridgeline. The proposed mine would be constructed on the northeastern slope of the mountains.

Mine opponent Tucson-based Save the Scenic Santa Ritas (SSSR) asked the Forest Service to force Hudbay to reopen Gunsight Pass. The Forest Service rejected the group’s request.

“The Forest Service has an obligation to ensure the public can access their national forest,” SSSR president Gayle Hartmann wrote in a Nov. 12 letter to the Forest Service. “We are deeply troubled by this recent development, and it underscores our significant concerns about this project,” she wrote.

Coronado National Forest supervisor Kerwin Dewberry responded to SSSR’s request in a Nov. 20 letter stating that access to public land across private land occurs at the private property owners discretion unless a written easement has reserved the right to public access.

“In the case of the private lands immediately surrounding Gunsight Pass in the Santa Rita Mountains, the CNF is not aware of any such” easement, Dewberry states.

Hartmann said the group is considering legal action.

The Daily Star reports that the Arizona Game & Fish Department has issued 2,000 hunting permits in its 700-square mile wildlife management unit that includes the proposed mine site and Gunsight Pass.

Four days after the Daily Star’s Dec. 4 story a human-caused wildfire started near Gunsight Pass at approximately 2 p.m. The fire  grew to more than 200 acres in grass and oak vegetation.

Firefighters from the Bureau of Land Management, Arizona State Forestry, Tubac Fire Department, Sonoita Fire Department, Green Valley Fire Department and the Coronado National Forest were dispatched to suppress the fire, according to the Incident Information System report on the fire.

The fire was 85 percent contained by Friday, Dec. 11. A light snow fall off about two inches extinguished the fire over the weekend, authorities say.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

This is the second wildfire to start near the proposed Rosemont mine. An employee of the previous owner of the Rosemont project, Augusta Resource Corporation, started a 2011 wild fire that burned 1,826 acres.

The Forest Service service charged Augusta $514,000 for fire suppression expenses.